I was just wondering what the actual route is for the Minimum Unlocks run.

So far, the most I've been able to skip is health points in Stage 1, background art and buster ammo in Stage 2 and autofire (and the health recharge if that counts) in Stage 3. Not having health points means the run has to be essentially hitless, which isn't too bad, and not having buster ammo means combat is much slower and more annoying given you can't get hit either. Most of the time I found myself just slowly whittling down the cannons' health so I could have a chance at getting past. I very much doubt that anything else is skippable but I just wanted to make sure.

I feel like it would be a good idea to specify what Minimum Unlocks actually entails (in the rules) before anyone submits any runs.

i added to the rules of minimun unlocks what must be skipped health points, background art, buster ammo, autofire and health recharge just like you said i dont see how anything else is gonna be skippable

I'll submit a reference run for this -- I have a video from back in October 2019

As far as I know, you can skip the following unlocks:

• Menu Music
• Menu Graphic
• Menu Particles
• Health (meaning, one hit kills you always)
• Background Art
• Buster Ammo
• Autofire
• Health recharge (not that it does anything anyways since your max health is 2)

Thanks for this, that seems to be the same as what I got. I did manage to get a deathless run once; I think the category might be able to go down to a low 6 with more risky combat.

I'm planning an update later this month with (among other quality of life changes) a slight decrease to cannon / linear path enemy health that should help out.